One Shot at Redemption
by heystella
Summary: The night of Heiji's wedding, and the aftermath. HeijiKazuha.


One Shot at Redemption

By Kaiyrah

The night of Heiji's wedding, and the aftermath. Heiji/Kazuha.

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It was a beautiful June afternoon.

The sun was setting; the flowers were in place and the guests were seated – and hopefully, if things went off without a hitch, there would be no dead bodies by the end of the night. The groom was a detective, after all, and his best man also happened to be a detective, one of the most famous ones of the time. It was often said that the two were like walking homicide magnets.

As the daughter of another detective, the famous Sleeping Kogoro, Mouri Ran sincerely hoped that nothing would happen. After all, the groom was one of her friends, and she simply wanted the best for him. But the best was…

She frowned, looking up at the altar. Hattori-kun stood there with a nervous grin on his face, his dark skin harshly clashing with his immaculate white tux.

The best was what he had not chosen.

It was a beautiful day, and Hattori-kun made a fine groom. But in Ran's mind, and also Shinichi's as he stood at the back of the church, there was only one problem.

Kazuha-chan was not the bride.

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"Wow, these heels are killing me!" Kazuha complained, yet still smiled jovially. She quickly rid herself of the strapped stilettos that she had worn for the ceremony and for a good portion of the reception and rubbed her aching feet.

Ran studied her friend closely. "Kazuha-chan, you don't have to pretend. You can be hurt, no one here is going to judge you."

Kazuha's eyes flickered to the nearby bar, where a group of guests were ordering martinis. Then she glanced back at Ran with an apologetic smile. "It's not that I'm not hurt, Ran-chan. It's been, what, over a year? Yeah, they've been together that long, and it still hurts. But after the first wave of tears passed, I realized that there's not much I can do."

"There's still hope," Ran argued.

A small smile briefly passed over Kazuha's painted lips. "Are you suggesting that I have an affair with a married man, Ran-chan?"

Ran flushed. "You know that's not what I mean."

"Yeah yeah, I know," Kazuha laughed, then stopped abruptly. It hurt even her to listen to it. It was a hollow sound. "Well, like I said, I can't do anything else." Her legs swung back and forth, testing the strength of the table she sat on. The sad smile that had recently taken its home on her pretty features settled back in again. "She's a detective. He's a detective. I just can't compete."

The Eastern detective's fiancée watched pensively as her friend strolled back into the ballroom with her heels in one hand.

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Where the hell was his best friend?

Hattori Heiji's head whipped about in all different directions. Where on earth was Kazuha? He'd seen her around the room earlier before, but now that he was actually seeking her out, she wasn't anywhere in sight.

Mentally, he cursed. This type of thing always happened. When you look for something, you never find it, but when you're not expecting it –

"What're you looking for?"

He turned and sighed in relief. It was a good thing he'd found her early, or else he would have started with the shouting – something he wasn't too keen on doing. He didn't miss the forlorn expression on her face – and it pained him inside to know that he was the cause of her grief. "Y-Yeah. Actually, I was looking for you."

She raised an inquisitive eyebrow. "What's up?"

"Uh… I just wanted to…" Suddenly his mouth went dry and the words escaped him. It was only then that he realized she looked quite good in that dress.

Not just good. Pretty. Beautiful.

"I'm listening," she assured him, a trace of her old grin placing itself on her lips.

"Uh…" He shook his head. "I just wanted to know… I wanted to know if we were okay."

She blinked. "Yeah. Of course we are; why wouldn't we be?"

He frowned. "Well for starters – "

Kazuha shook her head in response. "Rhetorical question, Heiji. Learn to not answer them."

A stretch of silence. Heiji simply looked at her, as if urging her to continue.

"We've been friends for a while," Kazuha started. "And we even started to date. But then someone better showed up. These things happen."

"Yeah," the groom admitted. "But I think you should know… I still – "

"I know."

Heiji approached her, his fingers brushing her damp eyelashes. Involuntarily, she also stepped closer. "Hey… Kazuha, you're…"

_Crying._

"I know that too."

----------

"Heiji's probably off to his honeymoon by now," Toyama-keiji remarked to his daughter the next day at the breakfast table.

Kazuha gulped down some medicine to take care of the monster headache that started pounding the minute she opened her eyes. She mentally noted to never drink again. "I gathered that, yeah."

"And you're okay with it?" Her dad inquired.

She shrugged casually. "I have no choice in the matter. I'm not his mother, just an old girlfriend."

"It doesn't matter if you have a choice or not, just your opinion. Are you okay with that or not?"

_Are you okay with him spending the rest of his life with someone who doesn't know him nearly as well as you do?_

"…Yes."

_No._

"I'm not his heaven anymore."

_But I'm not sure if I ever was._

----------

Paris. London. San Francisco. Seoul. Hong Kong. Sydney.

There were so many choices. So many places she wanted to visit, but she could only choose one. And it was an important decision.

Her father had already seen the possible living spaces for each destination, and all he said was to have fun, do whatever she needed to do, and live her life. He would support her in whatever she chose.

Her eyes flickered between the London and San Francisco pamphlets. She wasn't very confident of her English, but moving to either destination would improve it vastly. She would be able to see a new place, do new things.

Move on with her life.

----------

"Yo."

Kazuha blinked, and before she knew it, her desk had screeched in protest against the weight that settled atop it. "Oh. Hey, you. Don't you have work to do? Like a report or something? Cases have been pouring in like mad, I heard."

Heiji waved a hand carelessly. "I'm on break. Besides, if they really need that report, they'll bug me for it."

She glared. "Just because you're the police head's son doesn't mean you can shirk your duties."

He frowned at her.

She narrowed her eyes.

"…You win," Heiji sighed, removing himself from her desktop. "But seriously. What's up? We haven't been able to talk recently, you know."

Kazuha nodded her agreement, arranging the papers that had been rumpled. "Yeah, I know. But we're busy people now. We can't just take any old time off and hang out whenever we want."

"I know that," Heiji paused. "I heard you turned in your letter of resignation."

She glanced at him, collecting the papers into one stack. "You heard right."

"Why?"

Kazuha wasn't sure how to break the news. After a few seconds, she decided to just say it like it was. "I'm going to London."

His brow furrowed.

"It's just for a little while," Kazuha continued. "It seems like forever but I know as soon as I get there, the time will pass by like it's nothing."

Heiji swallowed. "When do you leave?"

"In two weeks," she responded, and quickly stood. "Hopefully when I come back, I'll be a stronger person than I am now."

He didn't need to ask what she meant by that.

----------

Heiji could not fight off the feeling of dread that settled into his stomach as he drove to the airport. Today was the day.

Today, Kazuha left for London. And she was going to stay there for a while, not even coming back for Ran and Kudo's wedding. In fact, she had apologized in advance for it, but Nee-chan had simply given her a hug and told her not to worry about it.

His wife grasped his hand, offering him a smile. "Anata, you should be proud. Be proud that your best friend grew up to be as strong and independent as she is."

Easier said than done. But he gave her a half-smile anyway.

----------

"I'm so happy for you, Kazuha-chan," Heiji's wife cooed as she gave her a hug.

Kazuha smiled as she returned the hug. "Thanks, Eiko-chan. I'll be sure to get you some souvenirs in London."

"Mm-hmm," she nodded her agreement, and stepped aside to let Heiji pass.

Heiji glanced at her. "So… you leave today."

She laughed, and it occurred to both of them that this was the first time she had laughed sincerely in the past seven months. "Thank you, Captain Obvious. But yes, today is the day I leave."

"But you're coming back." A statement, not a question.

Kazuha smiled. A genuine smile. "Yes, I'm coming back."

He frowned. "You'll write? Call?"

She simply smiled again.

"When exactly are you coming back?" Heiji demanded.

She paused to think, then answered vaguely, "Soon."

Heiji wrinkled his nose. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Before she could answer, the attendant's voice echoed over the waiting area. "Now boarding seating area 1, seating area 1 welcome aboard."

Kazuha glanced at her ticket before smiling at her best friend. "Soon is soon. That's all you need to know." She turned on her heel, against his ongoing complaints, and entered the gate, her carry-on in tow.

Though Heiji was not yet ready to admit it, Kazuha knew. All he needed to do was let go of the past. He'd already found his heaven.

Now it was time to find hers.

End.

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Well, this was written mainly because I wanted to see how Heiji and Kazuha would grow up to be like in a more realistic situation. Although they are nice, fairytale endings in real life are very, very rare, and I wanted to illustrate that by writing this. Yeah, it's probably not what you expected (nor wanted) but thanks for reading!

As always, Detective Conan is not mine.

(P.S. The ending featuring Heiji's point of view will most likely be posted as a sequel, so watch out for that soon.)


End file.
